Pakistan’s energy minister says a major technical flaw in the country’s power generation and distribution system caused a massive power outage that plunged the country into darkness overnight.
ISLAMA BATH – A major technical flaw in Pakistan’s power generation and distribution system has caused a major power outage that has plunged the country into darkness overnight, the energy minister said.
Hours after the late Saturday break, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said on Twitter that power was being restored in phases, starting with Islamabad. He said later Sunday that power had been restored in much of the country.
The residents initially reported on social media in the major urban centers, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan. The minister and his spokesman then went to Twitter to update the country.
Ayub encouraged people to be patient. He said the cause of the power outage was being investigated and work was underway to fire up Pakistan’s main power station Tarbela in the northwest, which would lead to the recovery of power in the rest of the country in phases.
Ayub said at a news conference on Sunday that the Guddu power station in the south of Sindh province developed a fault at 23:41 that caused the switch-off of other power stations within seconds.
Later, Energy Ministry spokesman Zafar Yab said the Tarbela and Warsak plants, both in the north-west of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were back online and that power was being restored to the transmission system.
However, Yab said restoring power to all parts of the country would take some time.
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Associated Press author Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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